A day trip to the second Italian lake

Lake Maggiore private tour give you the opportunity to discover an other big lake of the region, the ” Verbano”. Via private round trip transportation you will reach Stresa, where you will meet your private licensed guide. After a short visit of the beautiful Piedmont town of Stresa, you will get onboard a private boat and you will start the tour of beautiful and elegant Borromee Islands :

Isola Bella, It took four hundred years and the work of a hundred men (qualified architects, engineers, stucco workers, painters and cabinet-makers) to transform Isola Bella from a barren rock in the middle of the lake to a place of delight. Until 1630, Isola Bella was but a cliff inhabited by fishmongers, with a couple of churches and vegetable gardens sprinkled here and there. The Borromeo family, owner of Isola Madre since 1501, took an interest in the Isola Bella since the first twenty years of the century. The interest resulted into Giulio Cesare III and Carlo III starting the ambitious project for the palazzo we can see today. The project was then pursued, expanded and revised by Vitaliano VI, who is considered the official settler of Isola Bella. The work were restless even after him, and continued for all the Eighteenth and Nineteenth centuries until 1948, when Vitaliano IX Borromeo built the Salone Nuovo, the northern façade and the great docks.

Isola Madre, the history of this island is bound to the Borromeo family since 1502. The first transformation works to create a place of delights and a private residence began by the will of Lancillotto Borromeo. In 1542, the island had started to look like a garden. Forty years later Renato the First Borromeo started the works on the palazzo leaving the direction to Pellegrino Tibaldi, a very notorious figure in the Lombard culture and a trusted architect of Saint Carlo. At the end of 1700 the island appeared just like today, a place of peace and rest thanks to a mild weather and a luxurious nature. In 1826 were built several greenhouses along with the family chapel (from 1858) located on the eastern side of the great plaza, named after the chapel itself. The name Madre, still in use, comes from the historical supremacy of the island in the Verbano and also, it is said, from the benevolent mood of the mother of Earl Renato, Margherita Trivulzio.

Isola dei Pescatori, fishermen island, has taken its name from the main activity of people living there, which is still nowadays fishing. It is also the only one which is inhabited all year round by 50 people. It is a perfect place where to taste the delicious lake fish, which is prepared daily in many Trattorie present on the island

Lake Maggiore private tour can depart directly from your hotel or private Villa in Lake Como or form Milan downtown